Reforms to notice periods in Northern Ireland could reduce rental supply, impacting affordability and availability for renters, according to Propertymark.

The government has been consulting on the Private Tenancies (Notice to Quit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2025 to update notice periods which are currently four weeks for a tenancy up to 12 months, eight weeks for one-10 years, and 12 weeks for more than 10 years.

Proposed periods range from eight weeks, if the tenancy has not been in existence for more than 12 months, to seven months if the tenancy has existed for more than eight years.

Landlords can give a shorter notice period if there are rent arrears (one month), if a tenant has engaged in serious anti-social behaviour (two weeks), if they were convicted of a relevant criminal offence (two weeks) and possession for occupation by the landlord or landlords’ immediate family (three months).

Confidence

With rising notice periods, Propertymark believes landlords must retain confidence in the possession process - particularly in cases involving rent arrears, anti-social behaviour or breaches of tenancy agreements.

“Landlords who experience negative experiences of evicting tenants may end up selling their property rather than face lengthy void periods where they cannot collect rent,” it tells the government.

Fewer

Given that landlords in Northern Ireland are more likely to own fewer properties than the rest of the UK, it says they are more vulnerable to void periods, especially if they are still paying off the mortgage on the property.

The group has called for several key changes including lowering the rent arrears threshold to allow earlier action against non-paying tenants, clearer definitions of anti-social behaviour to prevent misuse and support evidence-based decisions, changing the threshold for criminal behaviour from ‘convicted’ to ‘charged’ due to lengthy court timelines, and introducing new grounds, including repeat rent arrears and serious or repeated breaches of tenancy agreements.

It says having a ‘repeat rent arrears’ exemption helps prevent cases where tenants repeatedly fail to pay rent but can avoid paying rent in full as they don’t quite meet the two-month threshold.

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